Shell Echoes
by IllyriaFred
Summary: Forgotten voices lead to new understanding for Illyria.


Shell Echoes  
  
Illyria laid on the floor. Something was different, her powers were gone yet something had been added. A voice was in her head and it wasn't her own, or WAS it her own. It was an impurity to her godlike nature, a flaw in a design she had known for millions of years of life and death. She attempted to grasp onto this fragment as if it was one of Fred's memories.  
  
She felt it when she grasped it, not the usual blue energy between her fingers, but it felt like the molting that some of her lesser minions went through. She reached oput her hand and instead of her armour she saw Fred's hand, no touch of blue, of her own essence on it. She sat up and looked down at herself. No longer was she clothed in her armoour, her second skin. She was now in the clothes she had awoken in. Fred's maroon dress, which she now wore on herself, felt as quite familar to her own armour. It was beyond a memory this feeling. It was as if a part of her remembered thsi outfit and brought comfort out of it. She stood up and it was as if her strength had been returned to her.  
  
She left the training room in serach of her guide, Wesley. As she passed through the halls she ran into the employees of Wolfram and Hart. Some spoke to her in terms of the shell. She pulled their named from Fred's memories which were now far more easy to read and fare more vast then she realized at first. She noticed an oddity to her voice, a difference that these humans had that intrigued her. In her time their was no need for this speech, for her own sounds had been vocalized songs. These songs were the ones she used to speak to the greens at Wolfram and Hart and were understood by all of her people. Her voice now had Fred's exact accent and tones. The people who saw her acted as if they didn't know of Fred's demise. The ones who did not speak to her rushed off or stared awestruck at her, a fact that was not lost on Illyria. And one that she took pride in.  
  
She concentrated on figuring out what had happened and without realizing it she slipped into her own voice again. As she was wandering she ran into Spike, who did a double take. He pulled her aside and spoke unharshly.  
  
"Blue, what are you doing?"  
  
"This is not known to me," she said hesitantly. "After my powers were depleted I felt drawn to something I can not name. Its outcome was my assuming the shell's exact form."  
  
"Walking around looking that way is not a good idea."  
  
"The employees reactions are not something that have gone unoticed to me. My lack of knowledge on assuming this form impedes my ability to abdicate it."  
  
"You were able to 'abdicate' your voice."  
  
"That was unintentional. I was simply responding to one of the humans. Realization of the change did not occur until that moment."  
  
They passed the Wolfram and Hart greenery and Illyria paused. "The song of the Green is gone."  
  
Illyria attempted to speak her own language to the greenery and could not.  
  
She sadly looked at Spike. "In this form I am unable to speak to or hear the Green."  
  
Illyria concentrated and felt something change. She noticed Spike's face momentarilly show surprise.  
  
She held up her arm and saw that her armour was back. Turning back to the plants she realized she could still not hear them.  
  
"I am as close to myself as I can be again yet I do not hear their song."  
  
She realized that her one joy in the world she was stuck in, the one remaining link to her former life, was now gone.  
  
Spike noticed the sadness on her face and inquired about it.  
  
"My world truly is gone. The song of the Green is no longer in my ears."  
  
"There must be something left. Something you enjoy."  
  
A sad smile came to her face. "I do enjoy pumelling you. You make interesting noises."  
  
Spike put his arm on hers, forgetting that this was not Fred because he swore he heard something of her in Illyria's responses.  
  
"Well, lets do that, your highness."  
  
"I have warned you about my times punishment to your insolence."  
  
"Well, think about me as one of your subjects as we spar."  
  
The actual smile on her face was not just unnerving by its presence but also because of what it implied.  
  
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